My brother was now on the point of leaving Alencon to go to Flanders; the Queen my mother was desirous to see him before his departure.  I begged the King to permit me to take the opportunity of accompanying her to take leave of my brother, which he granted; but, as it seemed, with great unwillingness.  When we returned from Alencon, I solicited the King to permit me to take leave of himself, as I had everything prepared for my journey.  The Queen my mother being desirous to go to Gascony, where her presence was necessary for the King’s service, was unwilling that I should depart without her.  When we left Paris, the King accompanied us on the way as far as his palace of Dolinville.  There we stayed with him a few days, and there we took our leave, and in a little time reached Guienne, which belonging to, and being under the government of the King my husband, I was everywhere received as Queen.  My husband gave the Queen my mother a meeting at Reolle, which was held by the Huguenots as a cautionary town; and the country not being sufficiently quieted, she was permitted to go no further.

It was the intention of the Queen my mother to make but a short stay; but so many accidents arose from disputes betwixt the Huguenots and Catholics, that she was under the necessity of stopping there eighteen months.  As this was very much against her inclination, she was sometimes inclined to think there was a design to keep her, in order to have the company of her maids of honour.  For my husband had been greatly smitten with Dayelle, and M. de Thurene was in love with La Vergne.  However, I received every mark of honour and attention from the King that I could expect or desire.  He related to me, as soon as we met, the artifices which had been put in practice whilst he remained at Court to create a misunderstanding betwixt him and me; all this, he said, he knew was with a design to cause a rupture betwixt my brother and him, and thereby ruin us all three, as there was an exceeding great jealousy entertained of the friendship which existed betwixt us.

We remained in the disagreeable situation I have before described all the time the Queen my mother stayed in Gascony; but, as soon as she could reestablish peace, she, by desire of the King my husband, removed the King’s lieutenant, the Marquis de Villars, putting in his place the Marechal de Biron.  She then departed for Languedoc, and we conducted her to Castelnaudary; where, taking our leave, we returned to Pau, in Bearn; in which place, the Catholic religion not being tolerated, I was only allowed to have mass celebrated in a chapel of about three or four feet in length, and so narrow that it could scarcely hold seven or eight persons.  During the celebration of mass, the bridge of the castle was drawn up to prevent the Catholics of the town and country from coming to assist at it; who having been, for some years, deprived of the benefit of following their own mode of worship, would have gladly been present.